Daniel Silva · 2006 · thriller
Daniel Silva's 2006 novel. After al-Qaeda suicide bombers slaughter hundreds at the Vatican, Gabriel Allon traces the plot to a Saudi billionaire financier, Zizi al-Bakari. Arming a brave young American curator with a lost Van Gogh, Allon sends her deep into Zizi's circle - from a London gallery to a Caribbean yacht to a Swiss safe house - in a lethal duel to find the man behind the terror.
- 1The Vatican
Warned of a coming attack, Gabriel Allon hurries to Rome to help guard the Pope - but the Vatican has been penetrated, and suicide bombers tear through a great outdoor audience, and Allon barely drags the Pope to safety.
- 2London
The trail leads to the Saudi financier Zizi al-Bakari. In a London art gallery, Allon's team dangles a lost Van Gogh as bait, and the young American curator Sarah Bancroft is drawn into Zizi's employ as his personal art adviser.
- 3The Caribbean
Aboard Zizi's vast yacht in the Caribbean, Sarah moves through his guarded inner circle, hunting for the terror mastermind Ahmed bin Shafiq while Allon's watchers trail her - until Zizi's guards smell the trap.
- 4Switzerland
Her cover blown, Sarah is spirited to a lonely house in the Swiss mountains and broken under interrogation, and Allon's team must storm the place to free her - before the reckoning that waits back at the Vatican.